Letters | As Macau mirrors Hong Kong, the message is clear from Beijing

Direct election hopefuls have been disqualified from the coming Legislative Assembly race in an unprecedented step since the establishment of the Macau SAR

Reading Time:1 minute

Macau residents look at posters for the 2017 Legislative Assembly Election on September 17 that year. Incumbent lawmakers are among some 20 pro-democracy candidates disqualified from the 2021 race. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 6:15am, 18 Jul 2021Updated: 6:15am, 18 Jul 2021

The final disqualification of 20 Legislative Assembly candidates from six lists for elections due in September has sparked heated debate in Macau.

Most of those affected by this move, unprecedented for direct election hopefuls since the handover from Portuguese to Chinese rule in 1999, are from the pan-democratic parties who have been struggling for democratic rights in the former Portuguese colony since the early 1990s (“Macau takes unprecedented step of barring opposition figures from coming elections”, July 10).

The incumbent pro-democratic legislators, whose ideologies are inconsistent with those of their counterparts in the Legislative Assembly, have been castigated for neither pledging allegiance to Macau’s Basic Law nor the Macau Special Administrative Region.

It has also been noted that defence of the Communist Party leadership is a “very important foundation” for deciding eligibility for candidacy in this year’s election.

As pointed out by Mr Antonio Ng Kuok-cheong, a representative of the pro-democracy camp and incumbent legislator, the Electoral Affairs Commission’s decision on the disqualification of all democratic candidates for the Legislative Assembly is not surprising, as it is proof that Beijing is tightening controls over both Hong Kong and Macau.

Since the national security law was imposed in Hong Kong last year, the authorities in Macau have been intent on adopting the same standards as a means to be in alignment with or even ahead of the policies regarding state security in Hong Kong.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x

.css-sioo19{color:#c79a00;}Letters | As Macau mirrors Hong Kong, the message is clear from Beijing

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Direct election hopefuls have been disqualified from the coming Legislative Assembly race in an unprecedented step since the establishment of the Macau SAR

Letters | As Macau mirrors Hong Kong, the message is clear from Beijing

Direct election hopefuls have been disqualified from the coming Legislative Assembly race in an unprecedented step since the establishment of the Macau SAR